European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 20, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes George Gedda americans deprived of the need for enemies if a country needs enemies to retain its identity the United states could be in big trouble. Ten Yean have passed since the United states officially recognized China making this an appropriate time to dwell on a contemporary phenomenon Ameri cans have fewer people to loathe these Day China has been transformed from the totalitarian expansionist yellow peril into a gang of capitalist readers a billion Strong who see nothing wrong with making a Buck and cutting deals with Washington. Friendship with China seems so Normal Limo Day that people have forgotten the Shock that president Carter caused on dec. 15, 1978, when he announced thai the United states was dropping Taiwan for the people s Republic. Even More remarkable is the transformation in relations with the soviet Union. Five years ago president Reagan was engaging in his evil Empire rhetoric about the soviets and americans were pouring rus Sian Vodka Down the Drain to protest the shooting Down of a korean air lines passenger plane by a Sovi it missile. Nowadays president Mikhail Gorbachev gets uniformly High Marks in . Public opinion polls and americans arc sending Relief packages to earthquake victims in soviet Armenia. Who today Are the men we love to hate asked Charles Paul Freund of the Washington Post. He recalled that Corgi Arbatova Moscow s leading . Expert once said facetiously that the soviet show of Friendship was really an Ami american plot. Well deprive America of its enemy Abalov reportedly said forcing the United states to focus on internal problems. Heretofore american attention had been diverted by the need to contain the communist menace. I Don t know what we will do former Cia official Graham Fuller said last week without the soviet Union As a Touchstone for third world  the soviet Union and China Are not the Only nations that have disappeared from the american pan Theon of evildoers. Latin America for example is run Ning Low on military dictators Long a favorite target of democrats. Even Chile s military president Augusto Pinochet has quieted his myriad critics by holding a free and fair election. He even had the decency to lose it. In Africa Uganda s Idi Amin has been reduced to irrelevant exile. Libya s Moa mar Qadhafi does t Russell Baker seem to arouse As much indignation As he did before the . Air Force bombed him. Remember open hatred for that group disappeared with the Gas lines. The nicaraguan contras America s least favorite anti communist guerrilla group have won a measure of sympathy lately As word has spread that they have been leading a deprived existence at pathetic Camps along the honduran Border. To be sure there arc people abroad against whom american can rally. A Jalolah Ruhollah Kho Meini still Rales Iran under a death to America ban Ner. And his friends in Lebanon who continue to hold americans hostage Are viewed almost universally by americans As perhaps the world s least congenial peo ple a Flap you a butt fun Mai a inst the to finally there is Fidel Castro who will soon Cele Brale 30 years of non Slop anti americanism. Speaking before a crowd of half a million recently Castro said the United states will never forgive Cuba for the revolution it has carried Oul j not Only did it aggravate the Pride of the Empire Castro said it also delivered a profound wound to its Imperial interests Castro is one adversary who won t let Down americans who have a psychic need for a foreign Devil in hither real rim is in a. He has l changed in three decades. Next month George Bush will become the eighth american president with whom Castro has been unable to get along. Coorg Odd he Anim for Dpi Liln Tor a a Odd Attu lira being at the game can be remark ably restful 1 went to a professional football game recently in Washington. It was remarkably restful and the game was Good and interesting to the very end the vis iting players working for a company licensed in Cleveland won by the football equivalent of a hair in the final mute. Interesting curiosity a minute in foot Ball bean no relationship to a minute in real life. A football minute lasts from 10 minutes up. Football s creation of the almost infinite minute makes the game longer than any game ought to a except Cricket. I allow the exception for Cricket because the accompanying beverage for Cricket is Tea football however apparently cannot be enjoyed without Beer and three to three and a half hours of Beer is Well a lot of Beer unless you re a fiend for Daisy bloat. It s the rare game these Days that does t go three hours., the Washington game was such a ran. By ending in slightly under three hours but i put that Down to the fact that i was in the stadium rather than by my parlor to where the length of the average game makes wagnerian opera feel like a pre View of coming attractions Hal was striking about seeing a  the Arena rather than on television was. Its restful Quality. After watching football on television i always feet rung out irascible and guilty. The guilt arises from a calvinist con science reacting to the discovery that it is banging but with a Man who can waste a whole afternoon staring at a Box when he could have been composing Limericks bagging leaves for mulch or listening to Bach. The wrung put irascible feeling results from television abuses aimed at keeping everybody s nerves stretched to the screaming Point to Wilt battering by Beer and car commercials. Constant interruptions to see a spectacular play in the faraway and utterly irrelevant and preposterously Bor ing Seattle Miami game. Cuts Back to football Headquarters for bulletins on the status of big running Back Buck Back breaker s three crushed rotator Cults. Endless instant   Chat Tennis of broadcast ers chosen for their Power to deny the viewer a moment s peace unless you re Lucky enough to catch a game broadcast by the incomparable John Madden Pat Summerall team at the stadium you enter another world. There u the calming Beauty of Thefield an expanse of Brilliant Green grass under a great vault of sky which that particular sunday in Washington was full of furious Black and Gray Clouds. Nature is present As it never is on television. Nor in stadiums encased under domes with fake grass carpets for Fields even in a Good seat you Are far away from action and action seems Surpri singly infrequent. From a seat High Over the Field the players become Small a Mored figures who periodically engage in Brief bursts of violent activity. Most of the time though is passed in hundreds of conferences and consultations although some immensely Complex negotiation were in Progress. The players assemble for conferences on the Field. A half dozen authority Fig ures the officials Confer con stantly with one another often with the players occasionally with the battalions of coaches clustered at either Side of the Field. ,.v. A a. These coaches Confer incessantly among themselves or with players who have come off the Field or by Telephone headsets with unseen consultants posted. At Remote Points around the Arena. Because television working to create. Nervous breakdown harps on metaphors of football As combat it  to discover thai instead of a Battlefield thearen is actually Tike a More disorderly Geneva with dozens of talks almost con stantly in Progress. The Long Talky pauses Between bunt of action become restful after awhile. How Lovely it is not having an infant replay of that key Block. How peaceful not having to see the incredibly  held goal thai lied the absolutely vital clash in faraway Nevada Between the Las vegas High rollers and Thearon steel belted. How Sweet it is to see lie Pataye standing idly on the Field with nothing to do but scratch themselves and know Chat this is a to timeout and that Tome where but not Here millions an being psychologically jump started to get out and buy Beer fast can Snow tire. Batteries.1. V. What is this the Washington team has lost a Well. They were probe Bly out talked in the conference. Free from to one can find philosophic Calm and recall what the philosopher red Smith observed it s Only i game that boys can play  " the opinions expressed la us Cortous and cartoon on thai pc re preheat imm of the author ind ire a no Way to fee considered u representing the Rieti if the St a and Snipes or the Utt Loti states got unsent